South Africa’s television industry has been shaped by political influence since its inception, with government control initially limiting the diversity of content available to viewers.

When television broadcasting finally began in South Africa on January 5, 1976, the country was a latecomer to the medium by international standards. The conservative government, which viewed television as the “devil’s box” and a potential threat to its value system, ensured that state control and censorship dominated the new medium.

During those early years, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) maintained a monopoly on all television content, including news, sports, and entertainment. While the broadcaster developed substantial infrastructure and skills internally, viewers had little variety in programming.

For a small segment of the population, primarily in what is now North West province, Bophuthatswana’s Bop TV offered a more liberal selection of local and international shows. Some residents on the western fringes of present-day Gauteng could also access Bop TV signals that spilled over from the Bantustan.

The broadcasting landscape experienced its first significant transformation with the introduction of M-Net in 1986, giving South Africans outside the Bantustans their first alternative to state broadcasting. M-Net’s business model, based on user subscriptions and advertising revenue rather than government funding, represented a major shift for the industry.

Competition spurred innovation, with M-Net launching South Africa’s first daily soap opera, “Egoli: Place of Gold,” and investigative journalism program “Carte Blanche” in 1988, setting new standards for the industry. A small segment called SuperSport would later develop into one of the world’s largest broadcasters of live sports.

While M-Net brought some market liberalization, most South Africans still relied on SABC for their programming, and M-Net was prohibited from offering its own news service. However, the SABC itself was undergoing transformation. When Brand Fourie stepped down as leader of the broadcaster in 1985, he was succeeded by Christo Viljoen, an academic and electronics engineer.

Viljoen assembled a commercially-minded team that included Quentin Green, Gert Klaasens, and Wynand Harmse. This group formed the Viljoen Task Group on Broadcasting, which produced a 1991 report recommending airwave deregulation and the introduction of community radio.

“That is an often-overlooked but important turning point, especially from a business point of view, because what that team did was shift the focus of the broadcaster from simply being a state propagandist to being a more organised commercial and entertainment provider,” said Ruth Teer-Tomaselli, an emeritus professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

Another significant development came in 1993 with the formation of the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA). According to Teer-Tomaselli, the IBA was established before South Africa’s first democratic election in 1994, partly because preparing the SABC for the election was one of the authority’s first major responsibilities.

The IBA categorized broadcasting licenses into public (SABC), commercial (M-Net), and community categories. By 1997, regulations were introduced mandating quotas for local television and music content. These regulations significantly impacted the development of independent production houses in South Africa, as they required broadcasters to commission content from external producers.

“By the early 2000s, the SABC had practically shut down all of their internal production, except for sport, a little bit of education and news production. They don’t make dramas anymore because that is all commissioned,” explained Teer-Tomaselli.

The launch of e.tv in October 1998, following a competitive bidding process, brought further changes to South Africa’s broadcasting landscape. E.tv introduced a hybrid broadcasting model that combined elements from existing broadcasters—it was free to air like the SABC but privately owned like M-Net. This introduced new competitive dynamics into the market, even prompting the SABC to rebrand shortly before e.tv’s launch to protect its advertising market share.

E.tv brought independent news and current affairs programs like “3rd Degree” and new soap operas including “Backstage,” “Rhythm City,” and “Scandal.” This surge in local content production fueled the growth of production houses such as Quizzical Pictures, Ochre Moving Pictures, and Urban Brew Studios.

The new millennium brought technological advances that would further transform broadcasting. Between 2000 and 2010, the internet became increasingly central to global commerce. The launch of platforms like Facebook in 2004 and YouTube in 2005 heralded a new era of media consumption. By 2007, Netflix had launched its streaming service with around 1,000 titles, a number that has since grown to approximately 14,000.

South Africa’s broadcasting industry has struggled to keep pace with digitization. Although M-Net evolved into DStv as early as 1995, effectively introducing satellite-based digital television to South Africa, its parent company MultiChoice has faced challenges with its streaming service Showmax against larger international competitors.

The SABC’s digitization efforts have been hampered by ongoing delays in the broadcast digital migration project. Many industry experts, including Teer-Tomaselli, believe the government’s 2010 decision to adopt digital terrestrial television was shortsighted. Both the SABC and e.tv have launched their own streaming services—SABC Plus and eVOD, respectively—to compete in the streaming market.

“DTT only made sense at the time because it was based on short-term economic thinking instead of long-term vision. Government really didn’t believe that the internet would be so powerful so soon,” Teer-Tomaselli concluded.